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City commissioners to consider new solicitation ordinance

City commissioners at Monday’s regular meeting will consider an ordinance prohibiting people from soliciting donations along a public road.

The new law would replace a repealed ordinance, called ordinance 23-1, that prohibited panhandlers from using signs to ask for money.

The proposed ordinance No. 13-5060 specifies “that no person shall go upon or alongside a public road to solicit or attempt to solicit donations, contributions, employment, business, sales or exchanges from occupants of motor vehicles; providing that no person shall go upon or alongside a public road to distribute or attempt to distribute products or materials to occupants of motor vehicles; and further providing that no person shall go upon a public road to display advertising of any kind.”

The city’s former sign-holding law was repealed in January. Circuit Court Judge Rick DeFuria said the ordinance violated federal free-speech protections by prohibiting panhandlers from holding signs that solicit money from passing motorists. City Attorney Bob Fournier drafted a new ordinance to replace the repealed law.

In other business commissioners will: • Vote on the second reading of a zoning text amendment that would allow tandem parking at certain developments built on Golden Gate Point. If approved, the change would allow developers to include tandem parking — where two stacked cars park front bumper to back bumper to use less parking space — for projects that meet several specific criteria. The development, for example, must be capped at 50 feet in height and a maximum of four stories. Currently, projects on the 22-acre island near downtown can be built up to 90 feet in height.